The fissures in Iranian society are laid bare. Still, life goes on, with shoppers wandering through stores in one block while protesters battle police in another. News photographers cruise the streets in cars, snapping images from open windows before speeding away to elude the police.

Riot police in body armor swarm Tehran's wide, leafy streets, blocking traffic and beating protesters - men and women - with rubber truncheons. Angry Mousavi supporters, some wearing makeshift green masks, set fire to mounds of tires and torch a bus. They tell journalists that government militiamen attacked their office overnight and fired tear gas on Vali Asr Street. At Mousavi's headquarters, volunteers are in shock. Mobile phones and the Internet - the opposition's main organizing tools - no longer function. Young Ahmadinejad supporters cruise through the streets on motorbikes, waving Iranian flags and shouting 'Mousavi is dead.' Battle lines are drawn. The government news agency then proclaims President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner. Soon after the polls close, Mousavi declares he has won. As the day fades, however, signs of conflict loom. After all, this is what Iranians fought for in the 1979 revolution that toppled the shah and installed the Islamic republic - even though 60 percent of the population is too young to remember the struggle. People seem genuinely eager to cast their ballots and make their voices heard.

Families bring their children to the polling stations in a carnival atmosphere. Bearded men, women in headscarves - no one seems to complain. The AP gives a street-level view of a week that shook Iran.Įlection Day and the excitement in Tehran is palpable.

My flickr euphoria